A Guide to International Moving Costs 2025

Thinking of upping sticks and heading overseas? How exciting. Allow us to explain the key costs of moving abroad – from shipping and insuring your belongings to paying for flights and bagging a visa.

And if you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, take a breath and download our handy moving abroad checklist to make sure you’ve got everything covered.

When it comes to moving your things abroad, costs can add up quickly. Want to steer clear of a hefty price tag? Try using our custom-built tool to get the best deal on tailored shipping quotes.

It couldn’t be easier – simply pop in a few quick details about the journey, and our trusted suppliers will be in touch shortly with their best prices on offer.

Select the size of your move to get free quotes

What’s on this page?

01 | Shipping your belongings
02 | Packing and unpacking
03 | Removals insurance
04 | Hiring storage space
05 | Transferring money abroad
06 | Buying a new property
07 | Paying customs duty
08 | Getting a visa
09 | Booking flights
10 | Moving your pets
11 | Buying new furniture

If you’re thinking of moving abroad, then we’re very excited for you! There’s nothing like immersing yourself in a different culture; everything is new and challenging, but it’s a life-changing experience.

However, there’s a bit of planning to do before you can get to the fun stuff. International removals are going to cost you (unless you’re lucky enough to have a new employer footing the bill), so we’d like to guide you through the 12 key costs of moving abroad.

Once you know about these, you can start budgeting for your move and get the ball rolling.

1. Shipping your belongings

Let’s start with the obvious one. Moving abroad almost always involves taking belongings with you, ranging from some boxes to the contents of a five-bedroom house. There are five key things that determine how expensive your shipping costs will be:

1. The type of transportation (sea freight or air freight)
2. How much you bring (the volume or weight of your goods)
3. The journey distance (more miles means more money)
4. The destination port (customs duties will vary)
5. The time of year (peak season vs low season)

Take a look at our guide to international container shipping costs, complete with maps and stacks of helpful info. We’ve written a guide on how to ship furniture abroad too.

Estimated cost: Anything from £1000 (GBP)  to £5,000+ (GBP) , depending on the variables above. Use our form at the top of the page to compare removal quotes. Fill in your details and you’ll get accurate, personal quotations from our shipping suppliers.

2. Packing and unpacking

Preparing all your belongings for an international shipment is a big task; you need lots of sturdy materials, a detailed plan and some strong arms.

Fortunately, most shipping companies offer professional packing and unpacking as part of their service (along with the loading and unloading of your container), so you can breathe easy. They also provide all the materials you’ll need, from industrial shrink wrap to good old-fashioned cardboard boxes.

If you fancy a challenge, doing your own packing and loading will save you some money, but the option to use professionals is always there. Either way, your furniture deserves looking after.

For more information, head to our page on moving furniture abroad, where we go into some serious detail about how to pack your belongings.

Estimated cost: Fees for a professional packing/unpacking and loading/unloading service generally start at about £100 (GBP)  for half a 20ft container (15 cubic meters), but more cargo means higher prices.

Packing everything yourself can easily cut costs by over 50%, depending on where you source your materials from. You can get large corrugated cardboard boxes for as little as £1.50 (GBP)  per box, while ten-metre rolls of bubble wrap come in at about £5-6 (GBP) .

3. Removals insurance

Insurance is a cost you can bypass if you’re a risk taker, but we don’t recommend it. Spend a bit of money on protecting your cargo during transit and everything will be a lot less stressful.

Ocean freight is much safer in the modern age, with digital container tracking and strict regulation from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), but it’s never 100% risk free. Shipping containers can tilt by up to 30 degrees during their journey over the sea, so that’s a lot of slipping and sliding if things aren’t packed properly.

Most shipping companies include basic insurance cover as part of their service, but it doesn’t go very far. That’s why we recommend you pay for extra cover or just take out a separate policy that’s much more comprehensive.

Visit our breakdown of international removals insurance for more guidance.

Estimated cost: Quotes from cargo insurance companies are based entirely on the monetary value of your goods, not the volume or weight. Removals insurance policies normally cost between 0.6% and 4% of the total declared value of your goods. To insure cargo worth £55,000 (the typical value of the contents of a three-bedroom home according to the Association of British Insurers) travelling from the UK to Australia, it would cost between  £240 (GBP) to £1,600 (GBP) . Lower value goods and shorter distances will naturally incur cheaper premiums.

4. Hiring storage space

Renting storage space is like getting a new apartment for your furniture, except you’re not allowed to stay there yourself.

There are two reasons you might need to hire some storage space: one, if you’re flying out ahead of your shipment date and your cargo needs a place to wait, and two, if you’re leaving belongings behind that you’d like to keep for when – or if – you return.

If you don’t have any friends or relatives who’ll look after items you’re leaving behind, this is when hired storage space comes in handy.

To learn more, check out our page (and video) about international storage.

Estimated cost: Prices for storage units are based on the size of the space you’re hiring, generally measured in square feet (sq ft). A 100 sq ft storage space (approximately equivalent to the contents of a two-bedroom house) will cost about £100 (GBP) per month in the UK, while costs can reach more than $200 per month in popular US cities like Los Angeles. Most storage companies apply a discount if you use them for long periods.

5. Transferring money abroad

We recommend taking some money with you. It’s really simple to send your money electronically, but international transfers come at a cost.

Avoid using high street banks for this process as you’ll usually have to pay high fees and you won’t get the best exchange rate.

We’ve teamed up with Wise for this reason. Wise offers an easy-to-use online international money transfer service that uses the real exchange rate and charges low fees.

How much could you save? If you compare it to the high-street banks, you could be spending 8x less.

Join more than 12.8 million people and start using Wise today.

6. Buying a new property

You’ll need somewhere to live in your new country, so the cost of buying or renting a house or flat is unavoidable.

Once you’ve decided on a country and a city to move to, you then need to know about the best neighbourhoods. Speaking to people on expat forums is a great way to do this research, and you can learn lots about living in a foreign city before you move there.

Estimated cost: It’s very difficult to estimate the average cost for property around the whole world. As an example, though, let’s look at the UK and the US. The average house price in the UK in 2025 is around £290,000, while in the US it’s $419,000 (£332,847).

And if you want a comprehensive to-do list, just download our handy moving abroad checklist to make sure you’ve got everything covered.

7. Paying customs duty

Customs duty is basically a tax on everything that’s coming into a country. Rates vary between countries and they’re rarely included in shipping companies’ prices, so you need to allow for additional fees when you’re looking at sea freight quotes.

Customs duties are great for protecting domestic economies but they’re a real pain when you’re the one paying them.

Fortunately, most countries have duty-free policies for people who are importing used household goods for personal use. There are a bunch of specific requirements (that vary from country to country) but, ultimately, a shipment of furniture for your new house is likely to avoid high duty rates. Australia and the US, for example, both have duty-free policies for household goods. However, there are certain things that will never escape customs duty, such as motor vehicles.

Allow us to explain in more detail…

Select the size of your move to get free quotes

8. Getting a visa

Getting all your belongings through customs is one thing, but you need to get yourself through, too. Every country comes with specific visa requirements, so you should make sure you can satisfy them before planning a move abroad.

Obviously there are visa exemption arrangements between certain countries, but most of these arrangements are only helpful to travellers, not permanent movers.

If you have a family member from the country you want to move to, you’re in luck; most family based visas are much easier to acquire than employment-based ones. Otherwise, you’ll most likely have to find a job in your chosen country before you can move there permanently. It’s a time-consuming process, but it’s vital if you’re serious about moving abroad.

We’ve got a wealth of information about visas for all of our most popular routes. If you’re moving from the UK, perhaps you’ll want to read our guides to visas for the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Alternatively, if you’re moving to the UK, we have pages on UK visas from the US and from Australia.

Estimated cost: Visa fees vary widely depending on what you’re applying for and where you want to move. For example, the fees for the most common employment-based US visa are around £450 (GBP) , while the equivalent visa for Australia costs about £2,100 (GBP) . Those looking to move to the UK on the General Worker Visa will have to pay between £450 (GBP) and £1,200 (GBP) depending on the length of the stay. Meanwhile, moving between EU countries is almost always free (as long as you come from an EU country).

9. Booking flights

Moving to a new country often involves more than one flight. You’ll probably want to pay one or two visits to a country before you decide on permanently moving there, so you can get a feel for what it’s like.

If you need an employment-based visa for your new country, you may have to fly there for an interview, too. Likewise, you might want to see a house in person before deciding to buy or rent it. Going on multiple international flights is expensive but necessary – it’s better than moving straight away and then hating your new country.

Estimated cost: Skyscanner recommends that you should buy plane tickets about 18 weeks in advance for long-haul flights and seven weeks in advance for short-haul flights. With this in mind, cheap return flights from the UK to New York should cost around £370 (GBP) and return flights from the UK to Sydney should cost around £780 (GBP) .  If you’re booking in enough advance, no long-haul flight should cost more than around . On Skyscanner, go for the ‘Compare across a whole month’ option to find the cheapest day to travel.

10. Moving your pets

If you have pets, you’ll be needing to sort their travel too. Apart from the really small ones, most pets have to travel in the plane’s cargo hold. Don’t worry – it’s a special pressurised and air-conditioned part of the plane – the animals aren’t in the same place as the suitcases. Along with the cost of the flight, there are a few other things that you’ll have to pay for:

• Microchip
• Vaccinations (eg. rabies)
• Pet passport
• Quarantine
• IATA-approved travel crate

This is an important subject, so we’ve created a very detailed page about international pet relocation costs. It has lots of helpful information, price tables, pet requirements for many different countries and some cracking animal photos too!

Estimated cost: It usually costs between  £500 (GBP)  and  £1,500 (GBP)  to move a cat abroad, while for dogs, fees typically range between £1,000 (GBP)  and £4,000 (GBP) . These costs depend on several things, such as the breed and size of the animal and its individual veterinary requirements.

11. Buying new furniture

You’re unlikely to bring all your belongings with you to a new country, simply because some things won’t be allowed and some things won’t work.

Each country has a different voltage system, which makes certain electronic appliances (eg. fridges, washing machines) incompatible once they move countries. For example, the voltage in the UK is a mighty 240V while in the US it’s only 120V, so many electronic appliances bought in the UK will not have enough power in the States. A voltage converter can help in certain cases, but sometimes you’ll just have to buy new/second-hand and leave your old items behind.

Similarly, if you’re moving to a very hot or humid country, you might want to leave some of your valuable wooden furniture behind. Wood is sensitive to the weather and very old or very thin furniture might suffer in the heat.

Estimated cost: The costs will vary hugely, depending on what you’re buying and where you’re buying it. Check out international sites such as eBay and Craigslist for second-hand furniture and electronic appliances to save on buying everything new. If you’re planning on leaving some furniture behind and buying second-hand items (or even new items!) when you’re out there, it makes sense to put aside a few hundred pounds, according to what you’ll be wanting to buy.

What next?

We hope you’re more excited than ever for your move, even though it is a big undertaking. It’s a long list, but nothing you can’t navigate. We think it’s important to have a realistic idea of all the international moving costs so you can budget and prepare properly. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to save money along the way, from cutting down on the furniture you bring, to booking flights well in advance. Remember that moving to a new country is a brilliant, mind-blowing experience, and you can’t put a price on that.

To keep shipping costs down, make sure to compare at least three quotes. That way, you can rest assured you’re getting the best deal.

Want to speed up this process? Our custom-built quote tool can get you in touch with expert suppliers, who will then provide you with free quotes. It’s never been easier to find the best shipping prices!